St Peter's, Cardross by Diane M. Watters

Birth, Death and Renewal

Some books are fairly ephemeral things: picked up, read, enjoyed or
not and discarded. Other books have a more lasting value. And a few
are truly significant, capturing their subject so comprehensively
and with such authority that you know they will remain essential works
of reference for the foreseeable future. "St Peter's, Cardross: Birth,
Death and Renewal" by Diane M. Watters is a fine example of that last
type of book. It tells the story of Cardross Seminary,
or St Peter's College, and it tells it so well that it is impossible to imagine
anyone needing to tell it again. Yes, the story of its "renewal" is
not yet complete, and will need updating in the future, but from now
on no-one is ever going to be able to tell the story of the "birth"
and the "death" of the seminary without leaning very heavily indeed
on this truly amazing book.

They say that size isn't everything, and it is true that big books are
not necessarily always good books. But this one is both, and the imposing
physical size is part of what allows it to do its job so well. The
author takes a historian's measured and considered approach to telling
us the story of the seminary. Its origins are set against the background
of the demographics of west central Scotland in the decades after
World War Two; and against the background of the development of Scottish
and world architecture over the same period. We then move on to explore
the story of the architects; the design and construction; the use
of the seminary during its short 14 year active life; the reasons
for its decline and demise; and its salvaging and possible future
uses. These sections, making up the first three quarters of the book,
are superbly illustrated with photographs and plans and are worth
the cover price alone.

They are followed by a section contributed by Angus Farquhar, the Creative
Director of Glasgow-based NVA, on possible futures for what remains
of the seminary. This comes complete with a magnificent 54 page "image
essay" which makes full use of the book's large format to present
a stunning collection of recent images showing the sad state the seminary
had reached before efforts began to reclaim it, and the results to date
of those efforts.

The reader - this reader, at least - emerges from the book with a sense
of wonder, both at the scale of what has been achieved by the authors
and that such a truly ill-starred building could ever have seen
the light of day. Diane M. Watters takes an objective
and balanced approach to the story of the birth and death of the seminary.
But what emerges seems to suggest that as a seminary, St Peter's College
was little short of a complete disaster. It was conceived as a response
to a growing Roman Catholic population in west central Scotland, just
at the point at which the rate of growth of that population diminished
dramatically. It was conceived as a means of training priests for
the Roman Catholic Church, but completed just after the Second
Vatican Council made fundamental changes to the way the priesthood
would in future be trained which seriously undermined the building's
rationale. And it was built in a modernist, brutalist style
that, at best, sharply divided opinion. The result was a building
far too large and far too expensive to run;
which had poor sound insulation and heating problems; and whose core,
its chapel, was no longer suitable for the purpose to which it was
put. And, in a country not renowned for a constantly benign climate,
it failed to keep the rain out. The author reports that at one point
during the winter of 1967, heavy rain revealed fifty-three leaks in
one small part of the building alone, with many more elsewhere.

What do you do with a building variously described as both Scotland's
best 20th century building and its worst? A building viewed by many
as of world significance and given the highest level of listing, yet
at the same time a building now stripped of the Baronial mansion around
which it was wrapped (which was demolished following a fire long after
abandonment) that means it can never be "complete" again? It's
an intriguing question, and as yet an incompletely answered one. But
while opinions might differ widely about the merits of the building
that is the subject of this book, it is beyond doubt that the book
itself is little short of a masterpiece.